About Swift
Swift is the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services, headquartered in Belgium.
About the role
The First Line Risk & Control Manager will lead a team of professionals focused on strengthening risk and control practices throughout the organization, overseeing first-line control testing, supporting audits, and ensuring adherence to internal control frameworks and regulatory requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Recruit, coach, and develop a high-performing team of risk and control professionals.
- Set clear goals, provide feedback, and foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Translate organizational strategy into actionable plans for the team.
- Build strong relationships with senior leaders and cross‑functional teams across Swift.
- Drive adoption of new processes, tools, and frameworks.
- Monitor team performance against KPIs and deliverables.
- Provide transparency and ensure accurate reporting of control testing and audit activities and results to executive and senior leadership.
- Build and foster meaningful and professional relationships with internal stakeholders across all three lines.
- Collaborate with the 2nd line Risk Department and 3rd line Internal Audit to stay aligned on first-line testing, risk and audit activities and outcomes.
- Perform first-line control testing and assurance reviews to evaluate the design and operating effectiveness of the controls.
- Identify and report control gaps, risks and compliance issues.
- Ensure issues detected by first line are documented as Issues Known to Management.
- Support remediation plans and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Maintain documentation for audits and regulatory reporting.
- Collaborate with business units to ensure adherence to internal control standards.
- Drive improvements to increase control and control testing maturity.
- Provide internal and external audit oversight, including coordination, monitoring, and guidance in preparing timely and quality responses to third-line audit findings.
- Provide training and guidance on control and auditing requirements.
- Serve as primary liaison for internal and external audits.
- Monitor and report on risk management activities and outcomes.
- Assist 1st line in identifying, analyzing, evaluating and mitigating risks in alignment with Swift’s Enterprise Risk Management Framework.
- Leverage a technology-driven risk lens to assist with the preparation and review of executive and board material.
- Manage and maintain the organization’s central technology policies and process repository to ensure they remain accurate and relevant.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree.
- 10+ years of experience in control compliance, risk management, audit or similar roles, and at least 3 years in a people leadership capacity.
- Strong technical understanding of compliance frameworks, risks, policies and controls.
- Proficiency in using governance, risk management and compliance tools and methodologies.
- Self-starter with a structured, process-oriented mindset and the ability to work independently in a dynamic, international environment.
- Excellent communication (written and oral), interpersonal and presentation skills.
- Strategic thinker and problem-solver, able to analyze complex technical data and provide actionable insights and recommendations.
- Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, with experience interacting at senior, executive and board levels.
- Collaborative mindset with a proactive and solution-oriented approach.
- Proven ability to influence, drive change and deliver with an operational excellence mindset.
- Resilience and adaptability in managing multiple priorities and delivering results in a fast-paced and evolving environment.
- Relevant professional certifications (e.g., CISA, CRISC, CGRC, GRCP, ISO 31000).
- Strong knowledge of industry standards and frameworks (e.g., ISO 27001, ITIL, NIST, CIS, COBIT) and technology risk principles.
- Professional English language skills (written and verbal).
Benefits
- Diverse and inclusive environment where everyone's voice counts.
- Unparalleled exposure to knowledge, expertise and technologies across multiple countries.
- Opportunity to influence and drive change at a global scale.
Accessibility and Accommodation
We are committed to an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require a reasonable accommodation related to accessibility during your application or interview, please contact accessibility-Sysgroup@swift.com.
All requests are confidential and will not affect your candidacy.
